One of the most effective ways to keep track of your projects and activities is to jot down a few words about them—in real time or near real time—so you don’t forget what they were. You can include as much detail as you want, but even something like “Evaluated accounting packages” may be enough to jog your memory. You don’t have to invest a lot of time in this process, either—a couple of minutes here and there is much better than dealing with The Gaping Void of Lost Memories later.

If you have more than a couple of minutes, consider dashing off a sentence or two that captures what worked/didn’t work, what you might do differently next time, and any data you can scare up that supports the success of the projects you’re most proud of. How should you approach this recordkeeping process? You could go old school and write on a legal pad or in a calendar book. You might take the spreadsheet route, maintaining a workbook with tabs for various categories of events and activities. You could record voice memos or use a note-taking app like OneNote, Evernote, or Google Keep. And there are scads of online and mobile journaling apps out there waiting to make this an efficient and painless task. The main thing is to find an approach that’s sustainable for you—because the key is to stay as up to date as possible.
]]>Thu, 17 Jan 2019 00:00:00 +0000From the ebook:

There is much debate over which programming languages are best to learn at a given point in time, but here are a few safe bets:

Java is used by millions of developers and billions of devices worldwide. It’s the official language of Android development, and 90% of Fortune 500 companies use it as a server-side language for back-end development, according to an analysis from Coding Dojo.

Python is commonly used in scientific computing, data mining, and machine learning. It’s the fastest-growing programming language, and Stack Overflow predicts that in 2019, Python will significantly outstrip other languages in terms of active developers. Coding Dojo found that Python grew in popularity by about 5,000 job postings between 2017 and 2018.

JavaScript is used by more than 80% of developers and by 95% of all websites for any dynamic logic on their pages, according to Coding Dojo. Several front-end frameworks for JavaScript, like React and AngularJS, will be increasingly used as Internet of Things (IoT) devices become more popular, so it’s unlikely that the language will fall out of favor any time soon.

Stack Overflow’s 2018 Developer Survey found that Rust, Kotlin, and Python were the most loved programming languages among developers, while Visual Basic 6, COBOL, and CoffeeScript were the most loathed.

In terms of what programming languages can net you the highest salary, globally, the top paying options were F# ($74,000), OCaml ($73,000), and Clojure ($72,000), according to Stack Overflow. In the US, Erlang ($115,000), Scala ($115,000), and OCaml ($114,000) topped the list.
]]>Tue, 08 Jan 2019 00:00:00 +0000From the cheat sheet:

Which network switching technologies are your familiar with?
The candidate has Cisco CCNA certification and has experience working with Cisco and Dell network switches.

Describe how you would resolve a situation in which an ISP blamed the local network for voice issues you believed might be due to a provider problem.
The candidate provided as an example a case in which a malfunctioning data circuit contributed to voice quality issues. The telecom provider was initially reluctant to open a service ticket to address the issue, saying there were no active alarms on its network. But the candidate collected traceroute logs showing packet loss, sent that information to the provider, and based on that data the provider opened a ticket and determined a routing card was failing at a central office in a rural area.

Which telephone and network troubleshooting tools have you previously used?
The candidate regularly uses both the Windows and Linux command lines to perform basic IP testing. He also uses Cisco diagnostic software and Fluke Networks hardware to isolate issues and diagnose the cause of errors. He regularly uses Wireshark to perform packet analysis, as well.

How do you work to maintain your telephone skills?
The candidate keeps current with voice and network technologies and solutions by attending vendor webinars, completing online training courses, and reviewing industry trade publications. He is interested in attending industry events at which new products and technologies are released or promoted, but his current employer doesn’t offer or support such opportunities.
]]>Tue, 18 Dec 2018 00:00:00 +0000 From the cheat sheet:

How do you do ensure that deadlines don’t slip when managing multiple initiatives?
The candidate described using Asana and previously, Basecamp, to keep colleagues and coworkers aligned and working efficiently. She conducts daily “scrum-like” meetings and regularly distributes status reports to stakeholders and managers to help ensure projects remain on track and prioritized.

Do you have any experience working within our specific industry?
The candidate has experience working within the fast food, financial services, insurance, manufacturing, health care, and communications sectors.

With which Web languages do you have the most expertise?
The candidate has earned Microsoft MCSA certification and has experience working with HTML 5 and CSS 3. The candidate said she’s also familiar with XML, JavaScript, ASP.NET, PHP, and Perl.

With which Web platforms are you experienced?
She’s previously worked with WordPress, Weebly, Wix, Joomla, and Drupal. She’s also used Go Daddy and Register.com extensively to reserve domains, coordinate SSL certificates, and administer DNS settings.

Do you have experience working within other development environments, such as DevOps, Kanban, or Waterfall?
The candidate does not have experience working in other environments. But she expressed an eager willingness to adopt more formal methodology.]]>Tue, 04 Dec 2018 00:00:00 +0000From the guidelines:

Whether you work from home occasionally for your standard full-time salaried job or work from home exclusively as a member of the growing gig economy, establishing a reliable, fast, and secure connection to the wider universe of interconnected networks is vital to your success. For home offices, the basic network router is the primary hardware component providing this gateway to the internet and all that lies beyond it.

But modern network communication protocols may require a network router that also provides wireless Wi-Fi capabilities, cable or DSL modem connections, multiple-band channels, and specific security features, just to name a few. Choosing an effective, secure, and feature-rich network router in this competitive environment requires a systematic approach that measures and accounts for dozens of potential features and configurations.

The process of choosing a home office network router starts with determining exactly what networking capacity will satisfy your business needs. Only then can you begin to make decisions about which configurations you should have and what feature sets you should seek. These guidelines and the accompanying comparison tool will help you through the process so you can find an effective piece of networking hardware.
]]>Mon, 03 Dec 2018 00:00:00 +0000From the cheat sheet:

Do you have experience managing shared project resources?
The candidate described her successes working within a blended matrix organization managing support technicians, field engineers, and various other subject matter experts who were shared resources who regularly served multiple teams.

Are you comfortable managing competing priorities?
She provided examples of methods she adopted to ensure she was dedicating time and resources to the correct priorities. One specific example was her drafting and publishing on her firm’s SharePoint portal a regularly updated project status report that used simple color-coding to note when certain projects were taking priority over others. The dashboard she created displayed when projects were in danger of missing a scheduled milestone, with a corresponding menu showing which party was responsible for the potential delay.

She also provided examples of planning “push” efforts in which she and her staff would work extra hours to complete specific critical tasks or ensure that a project stayed on track.

How have you previously managed problematic scope change requests?
The candidate described occasions in which she followed established project management processes to monitor initiatives, track scope changes, develop corresponding budgets and schedules, and have stakeholders approve and sign-off on specific scope change request budgets and schedules before implementing those changes within an established project. The candidate does not come across as one who readily completes tasks on the fly but instead requires teams follow established processes and procedures.
]]>Tue, 20 Nov 2018 00:00:00 +0000From the cheat sheet:

This cheat sheet is an IT manager aid for recruiting a qualified computer bench technician, computer hardware specialist, or computer lab personnel. Complete each field to keep telephone interviews on track and ensure that important details aren’t neglected during the first step of the recruitment process. General candidate information is collected first, followed by answers to position-specific questions. Recording such qualifications, experience, professional objectives, and temperament data will give you a baseline against which to compare potential candidates. We’ve supplied sample answers to help you complete the cheat sheet. You can replace them with your own candidate information.

Are you comfortable balancing multiple initiatives and demanding deadlines?
The candidate said she’s comfortable balancing multiple tasks and tight deadlines simultaneously and provided her experience working full-time while also attending college as an example.

How much first-hand experience do you have repairing laptop, workstation, and server hardware?
The candidate described her rather demanding professional experience working as a bench technician for a national chain, imaging systems, diagnosing and repairing hardware failures, and adhering to rigid deadlines.

This cheat sheet is an IT manager aid for recruiting a qualified field or systems engineer. Complete each field to keep telephone interviews on track and ensure that important details aren’t neglected during the first step of the recruitment process. General candidate information is collected first, followed by answers to position-specific questions. Recording such qualifications, experience, professional objectives, and temperament data will give you a baseline against which to compare potential candidates. We’ve supplied sample answers to help you complete the cheat sheet. You can replace them with your own candidate information.

Are you comfortable working with some-times demanding department heads and competing priorities?
The candidate shared experiences she’s had supporting multiple simultaneous outages impacting stores’ ability to operate following thunderstorms. When such crises arise, she begins triaging problems, performing first the tasks that will restore operations to the most sites most quickly, while also regularly providing updates to those still awaiting assistance.

How much experience do you have using ticketing systems?
The candidate’s previous employer used an industry-standard ticketing system. She had no issues working with that software. She implemented an open source ticketing solution of her own volition at her current firm to better enable tracking issues and generating efficiency reports.

Do you prioritize documentation?
The candidate was required to generate standardized documentation at her previous employer and built an Intranet to provide end users with common FAQ information at her current post. She also collected network and server documentation, which she maintains using a low-cost cloud service, at her current employer that previously had no formal documentation.

This cheat sheet is an IT manager aid for recruiting a qualified support technician. Complete each field to keep telephone interviews on track and ensure that important details aren’t neglected during the first step of the recruitment process. General candidate information is collected first, followed by answers to position-specific questions. Recording qualifications, experience, professional objectives, and temperament will give you a baseline against which to compare potential candidates. We’ve supplied sample answers to help you complete the cheat sheet. You can replace them with your own candidate information.

What daily production responsibilities do you fulfill in your current role?
The candidate said they were responsible for servicing 20 to 25 help desk support requests a day. In addition to using the university’s ticketing system to track service requests and assign service priority, the candidate was responsible for entering the amount of time they invested servicing each request and marking issues “closed” upon resolution.

What other work experience do you have that makes you a good candidate for our opening?
The candidate said they’re responsible for updating help desk documentation specifying solutions to various common issues. An example they used involved a printer that commonly requires installation using a nontraditional driver. The candidate is responsible for updating the university’s documentation to help other help desk technicians minimize the amount of time spent troubleshooting the problem and proceed more quickly to resolution.

The candidate added that while working in their previous position as a help desk Intern, they also regularly created new service desk forms and published them to the organization’s intranet to assist the firm’s users in reporting issues they needed help with.

What challenges do you seek in a new position?
The candidate said they don’t feel they’re currently receiving full opportunity to apply their computer science degree, certifications, and energy. They’re hoping to demonstrate their capacity over a six- to 12-month period serving as a service technician before they might be promoted to a tier 2 resource or even a service manager.
]]>Tue, 23 Oct 2018 00:00:00 +0000From the job description:

Solving a specific business problem, such as the digital transformation of a product or service, requires a key individual with the skills to design, describe, and manage the engineered solution. The architect of this engineered solution is in charge of introducing the overall technical vision and for leading its practical deployment. The position requires demonstrable technical expertise and extensive experience in implementing solutions and bringing projects to fruition.

Finding qualified individuals who have the expertise and experience to assume primary responsibility for making some of the most crucial decisions required to bring about the successful implementation of a solution will be difficult and time consuming. This job description will help you target the best candidates for this crucial position.

Duties and responsibilities
The solution architect will be responsible for analyzing our company’s current technological environment, establishing technology requirements, making solution recommendations, developing a collaborative framework to implement solutions, and ensuring that projects are properly managed and completed on time and within budget.
]]>Thu, 27 Sep 2018 00:00:00 +0000From the job description:

The technical writer will be tasked with turning product operation language into clear, concise, and readable material for users. They will be responsible for gathering information from product developers, testing the product personally, and interviewing beta testers to completely understand both the product and the user perspective.

The technical writer must have strong interpersonal skills and a thorough understanding of the objective behind the product being developed. In addition, they must be open to constructive editing and maintain a commitment to accuracy, with a strong grasp of grammar and usage.

Be open to training in the software or hardware products the company is developing.

]]>Wed, 12 Sep 2018 00:00:00 +0000Budget season is upon us. As businesses prepare their annual budgets they must respond to new business conditions in a highly competitive world. Technology spending, and the IT budget will influence the budget planning process as companies implement new processes and technology to support company growth and revenue opportunities.

In 2017 and 2018 Tech Pro Research surveyed technology professionals to see how the 2019 budget differs from last year, where money will be spent, and how much tech professionals feel the IT budget is valued by executive leadership.

Survey respondents from both 2017 and 2018 answered the following questions:

What percentage of the overall corporate budget is allocated for IT?

What percent of corporate technology spending comes from outside the IT budget?

How can IT vendors better assist you with your budgetary process?

How much do you anticipate your organization's budget for the next fiscal or calendar year will be?

How does your organization's budget for the upcoming year compare with the budget from the past year?

Compared to other business units within your organization, how would you rate executive management's opinion of the importance of the IT budget?

What are the top priorities in your organization's budget for the next fiscal or calendar year?

Over half of the survey respondents said that their organization would dedicate more funding to IT. Security continues as a major corporate focus, according to 63% of survey respondents. Other areas of 2019 IT budget prioritization include cloud services, with 48% ranking it as a priority; and internal employee training, with 44% ranking it as a priority.

Excitement about how new technologies can transform the enterprise and improve results motivates IT and end users organizations outside IT to spend more on IT.

While this may seem like a win for IT vendors, businesses will expect more rapid return on investments or recoups on cost of ownership than in the past. Further, businesses will expect technology vendors to conduct successful proofs of concept before they buy.

This report contains all the data, plus analysis, from the survey. For details on future Tech Pro Research surveys, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn.

To find out more about tech budgeting and spending for the upcoming year, download the full report.

Every month, Tech Pro Research releases an original research report on a different topic related to business technology. Here are some past reports:

Adaptive streaming
An approach to video streaming that offers multiple streams of the same content but with differing qualities based on data transfer bitrates and the resolution of the display device. The idea is that adaptive streaming (aka, adaptive bitrate streaming) will coordinate the playing of the video to be the best match for the device's capabilities.

Artifacting
The distortion or noise that can occur when audio or video is compressed to a very low bitrate.

Aspect ratio
The ratio of width to height for a video display. Common display ratios include 4:3, 5:4, 16:10, and 16:9.

Bitrate
A measurement of the number of bits per second (bps) at which a video stream is delivered. The bitrate can change or adapt to different client players and devices.

Broadcasting software (video encoder)
The background software or application that captures and then streams events taking place on a device to a service or other device. Broadcasting software may also "stream," or more accurately record, video to some form of storage. Some of the most common broadcasting video encoders are OBS Studio, vMix, and Wirecast.

Chroma subsampling
A common practice for encoding and compressing images and videos by using less chroma information than luminescent information. In other words, the process reduces the amount of data required to record an image or video by reducing the amount of color information collected. For the most part, the human eye can’t see the difference.
]]>Tue, 07 Aug 2018 00:00:00 +0000From the policy:

When considering training, ensure that there is an identifiable link between the selected training option and the employee’s career development plan. With that link established, identify which delivery method will best meet the employee’s career development needs, within the context of their current job requirements:

Internal training provided by the company and delivered onsite

External training provided by a vendor or university, usually from one day to several weeks in duration

Certification or degree programs

Self-study

A combination of the above can be used for ongoing employee development and should be considered part of an integrated career development plan.

Identifying appropriate training
All training should support the employee’s overall career development path and be relevant to their current roles and responsibilities or prepare them to advance within their career. During each annual review period, the employee should discuss career development needs with their manager and how internal and external training can address these needs. A well-designed development plan will support and streamline the process for approving internal or external training.
]]>Thu, 26 Jul 2018 00:00:00 +0000From the ebook:

As more companies undergo digital transformation, in-demand IT roles will shift by 2020 to include positions focused on advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), augmented and virtual reality (AR and VR), and the Internet of Things (IoT).

“Demand for tech workers continues to grow at a pace that’s unmatched in other industries,” said Raj Mukherjee, senior vice president of product at job search site Indeed. Several in-demand roles right now, such as full stack developer, will continue to attract heavy growth in the coming few years, while some newer positions will gain prominence as well, Mukherjee said.

A mix of tech and business skills will be required for nearly every position, according to CompTIA chief technology evangelist James Stanger.

“People have been talking for a long time about digital transformation of business,” Stanger said. “We’re going to see a lot of defined job roles either being radically redefined or even just go away. I think an IT skill set will remain valuable, but it has to be in regard to business. Too long, those things have been kept in siloes.”]]>Fri, 13 Jul 2018 00:00:00 +0000